In your opinion, why do people attend college or university?

[Note: In the Philippines, college and university are interchangeably used and will be in the same manner here.]

The pursuit of higher education in college and university has a multitude of motivations which can include such trivial things as getting away from stifling parental restrictions. However, there are more common reasons like the prospect of better-paying jobs, family and social expectations, and the genuine pursuit of personal development.

Especially now in this day and age of technical and techonological specialization, the acquisition of a college education has become a prerequisite for landing a high-paying job. Usually, the first hurdle that young people have is whether or not they can claim to have a college education. A mute but eloquent testimony to this is the blank space in the personnel's application form allocated for the name of the university attended. Granted it is possible to achieve technical competence through the trade school route, the college degree holder will nevertheless have the competitive edge when it comes to promotion.

Another common motivation (albeit an extrinsic one) for gaining a college or university education is family and social expectations. In developing countries like the Philippines, society places a premium on a person’s formal education. It is presumed that the child will attend university, whether or not the child wants to pursue a college education.

A third motivation is personal development. Children grow up believing that the completion of their training and education as a person is having a college education. How this might have gotten into their consciousness is not important. What is important is the person consciously seeks to enter college because it is there he or she expects that culmination of intellectual training will occur.

There are a number of reasons for people wanting to gain higher education, but the ones above are the most common.